I’m not sure why, but the PPP seemed to have had some objection to the PML-N rigging the PP-52 Sambrial by-election. The PTI had the same problem. Neither party seems to understand that the CM in office has a prescriptive right to win any by-election within the province. That means he or she has a prescriptive right to use whatever means, including those falling outside a mean-spirited, narrow-minded, and bookish interpretation of the concept of legality.
And is this not a case of the pot calling the kettle black? The PPP once held office, and no one could beat it in a by-election. The PTI was no slouch either during its tenure. Here, not only had the PML-N’s Arshad Javaid Warraich won handily in the general election, but it was his daughter who won in the by-election.
Just as the PTI and the PPP were having trouble with their by-election, so were both India and Russia having trouble with their aviation. Russia got hit by Operation Spiderweb, in which its nuclear-capable bombers were hit by Ukrainian drones, causing a loss of $7 billion worth of planes.
The Indian Air Force is still licking its wounds after the drubbing it got from the PAF, but the country’s national flag-carrier, Air India, had one of its new 787s crash on taking off from Ahmedabad, bound for London. No less than 270 people were killed.
Of course, there are others with problems with their aviation. Iran has been attacked by Israel, and I’m sure the PAF has welcomed the failure of the Iranians’ Russian-supplied S300 air defense system. It said it had overwhelmed the Indian S400, which is a more advanced version, but India said nothing had happened.
It’s a little like the spat (well, actually, it’s a pretty fierce fight) between US President Donald Trump and Harvard University. Trump accuses it of being Anti-Semitic (for allowing protests on campus against Israel’s massacre of Gazans), anti-conservative (probably because it teaches things like there is no superior race or that climate change is happening) and of coordinating with the Communist Party of China (presumably because it admits so many Chinese students and because it supports the belief in global warming, which Trump dismisses as a conspiracy to stop him from making America great again).
Well, that’s comparatively mild compared to the views of newly elected member of the House of Representatives Randy Fine, who is a Jew elected from Florida in a special election because the member resigned to join Trump’s team. He’s said the Gazans should be nuked. That sounds pretty extreme. He said there was something wrong with their culture. Which presumably makes them want to stay in Gaza.
The US House of Representatives needs something. Apart from Representative Finer, there’s
Rep Mary Milller, who objected to a Muslim reciting the daily prayer in the House. The only thing is, it was a Sikh granthi reciting from the Granth on June 6, the anniversary of the D-Day landings, chosen because Sikh troops were among those landing.
The USA seems to be no country for Sikhs. The first victim of the American response to 8/11 was a Sikh in Arizona who was killed by a local presumably because of the beard and turban. The granthi’s beard and turban must have fooled Rep Miller too, because though she belongs to Illinois, she belongs to a largely rural district, where Muslims would be few and far between.
However, the Sikh the Indian government tried to kill was not being confused with a Muslim, but the Indian government very deliberately was going for him. He is still alive. Maybe Indian CAS ACM Mara Preet Singh will find the USA too hostile to be visited.
Speaking of the Indian Air Chief, his clever plan to build a stealth fighter has been foiled by Pakistan getting stealth fighters from China. Now that will be a dogfight to remember, between the Indian-made stealth fighter and the Chinese.
Of course, Pakistan has to raise the money, and the budget presentation took place. And it was nice to know the PTI’s economic plan: Imran Khan ko reha karo! (Release Imran Khan!)
